Ricerc@Sapienza

Conscientious objections against same sex unions raise
delicate issues concerning the relation between freedom of conscience and religion and
the prohibition of discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation. The Chapter analyzes
the main international and comparative experiences concerning conscientious objection
to same sex unions, focusing more in detail on the US and UK experience, as
well as on ECtHR case law and the main cases decided in other European countries.

The work focuses on the conscientious objection in the italian legal system, starting from its history: the request of the objectors to be exempted from the duty of the military service. At the basis of this objection there were not so much purely individual reasons, a spirit of freedom or religious principles, but rather fundamental principles of the constitutional system itself.